The present invention related to appliances that use water and more particularly to electrically operated flow control valves used with such appliances.
Power operated mixing and flow control valves are employed where it is desired to mix fluid from a heated and unheated source to produce a fluid mixture of hot, cold and warm temperatures for an appliance that utilizes water. In particular, power operated valves of this type are employed in domestic laundry appliances, such as clothes washing machines, to control the filling of water in the wash tub, particularly those of the type having a tub with a motor driven agitator. In the typical household washing machine an electrically operated valve assembly has attached to one inlet thereof the household cold water supply and to a second inlet thereof the hot water heater. Upon being energized by the washing machine control circuitry, the electrically operated valve assembly admits either cold, hot or a mixture of the hot and cold water into the washing machine tub.
More particularly, these mixing and flow control valves are located inside a washing machine and are controlled by the control circuitry therein. Mounted on or in the wall adjacent to where a washing machine is located are conventional cold and hot water outlets with manually operated shutoff valves. As is well known in the art, one end of hoses of three foot to four foot in length are screwed onto the wall mounted cold and hot water outlets and the other end of the hoses are screwed onto the respective ones of the cold and hot water inlets of the mixing and flow control valves of the washing machine.
When a washing machine is not in use the manually operated shutoff valves should be placed in their shutoff state, but this is seldom if ever done. As a result water pressure is always present in the hoses connected between the manually operated shutoff valves and the washing machine mixing and flow control valves. Over time the metal rotating screw-on fittings on the end of the hoses become rusted and/or the material from which the hoses are fabricated degrades and a leak occurs. The result is water damage since there is nothing inhibiting water from flowing. The hoses connected to the water feed lines are pressurized.
Too often the electrically operated mixing and flow control valve inside a washing machine also degrade and fail due to age and the vibrations and temperatures inside the washing machine. When this valve leaks the result is water damage since there is nothing inhibiting water from flowing. The hoses connected to the water feed lines are pressurized.
These are two common areas in which water leaks occur in washing machines. Thus, there is a need for means to minimize or prevent the leakage problems and resulting damage in the prior art described the previous paragraphs.
In accordance with the teaching of the present invention apparatus is provided to minimize or prevent the problems in the prior art described in the Background of the Invention.
Separate electrically operated flow control valves are provided that screw directly onto the threaded outlet of each of the wall mounted manually operated water supply shutoff valves. The manually operated water supply shutoff valves remain in their open state as they typically are now. An inlet side of one of these new flow control valves is screwed onto each of the hot and cold water supply outlets. The hoses that are normally screwed directly onto the manually operated water supply shutoff valves are now screwed onto an outlet side of the new electrically operated flow control valves.
When these new flow control valves are not in their operated state, which is the state they are automatically in when the washing machine is not in use, the water pressure from the hot and cold water supply lines is isolated from the hoses and the washing machine. Any leak that may occur is limited to the small amount of water that lies in the hoses.
One end of a well insulated pair of wires is molded directly into the housing of the new flow control valve where it is electrically connected to a coil of a solenoid that controls the operation of the new valve. The other end of the wires are electrically connected in parallel to the control wires of the corresponding water mixing and flow control valve inside the washing machine, so that when the washing machine cold water mixing and flow control valve is operated the new, external cold water flow control valve is also operated, and when the washing machine hot water mixing and flow control valve is operated the new, external hot water flow control valve is also operated.
The new flow control valves may be retrofit to an existing washing machine in the manner described in the previous paragraph, or the conventional electrically operated mixing and flow control valve inside a washing machine may be eliminated and only the external flow control valves are utilized for cost savings. In the latter case an appropriate electrical connector is provided on the rear of the washing machine to which the control wire from the new hot and cold water flow control valves mounted external to the washing machine are connected. In that manner the washing machine control circuitry may selectively energize the remote water flow control valves to supply hot water, cold water, or a mixture of the two.